I'm a chemistry major pre-med with many volunteer hours logged and a semi-tough upcoming semester academically (General Physics 2, Organic Chemistry 1, History of Western Civilization which is hard for whatever reason). Spare time is not something I have a lot of at this point so pulling this off will be somewhat of a magic trick.

Training History:I've been into the theory of bodybuilding and strength training for awhile now and I figure its about time to put that to use. I lifted in the past and put on about 40lbs (125-165) 3 years ago but didn't lift consistently or squat at all. I used "Starting Strength" for about 4 months (ending about 3 weeks ago) before my bench stalled (lifts will be posted below). I lost the cord to my camera but as soon as I find a way to get pictures on here, I will.

I've set up some diets and routines for people who are just starting into lifting so I'm not a total donk when it comes to training I guess(did I mention I play poker?). Although, I believe as Dave Tate said, "no matter how much you think you know, you know nothing," which I firmly believe in. Basically, I'm open to any and all criticism.

Height: 6'Weight: 180lbs

Starting Strength results:Bench before: 135x2Bench end: 165x7

Deadlift before: 205x2Deadlift after: 265x5

Squat before: 115x5 (not a typo)Squat after*: 185x5

*sprained my knee skateboarding about 2 months into the program. I was starting to stall on squat anyway. My legs suck.

Muscle memory is an issue here as my lifts at one time were a little bit higher than they were when I started.

I'm hoping to see a lot of comments/criticism! First workout was yesterday; will post after this as this is getting long.

EDIT: Diet is 3600 calories over 5 meals. 30% fat, 30% protein, 40% carbs. This will be interesting as I don't know my body that well yet. Things are bound to change but calories are starting low because BF is around 15% right now.

Well this was a huge shock to my system as my strength went through the floor after the supersets on some lifts. Biceps are a very weak point for me so the weight is pretty low. Dips were all over the place as I really fucked up what I thought I could do. For some reason my arms are very hard to get sore no matter how hard I feel I worked them. Today though, I can’t lift food to my mouth and it feels GREAT.

B1. Bench over rows (grip completely shot at this point due to barbells)

115x5
115x5
115x5
115x5
115x5

B2. Cable rows
100x5
90x5
90x5
80x5
80x5

Weights were all over the place today as volume is not something I’m use to and I hadn’t done some of the exercises in a long time.

New gym and ALL of the barbells are thickbars. Not one regular one! Seeing as my forearms are by far my weakest point, I figured a few exercises might be a bit more difficult. It was, but wasn’t too terribly bad.

On incline I had some MAJOR shoulder fatigue. This was seriously effecting my incline bench and incline flies. Apparently my delts are not very strong. Going to work on rotator cuff strength to try and keep this fatigue from coming back.

I wanted to puke so bad but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Had some pizza earlier in the day before lifting and I’m positive that’s what caused it. Lesson learned.

Hell of a workout. I think I have a pic on my desktop at school of me about a year ago which I might post. At that time I look almost identical to when I started this program. At least there will be some visual comparison now. I go back in ten days.

My friend and I were talking and bench came up. I bench like a powerlifter with the elbows in and highly arched back. Due to this, my pecs are obviously not hit as hard. As the point of this program is purely hypertrophy, I’ll be flaring my elbows out a bit more, pressing to the neck area, and not arching my back as much. As a result, my bench numbers will obviously go down.

Made use of straps on the bent over one armed rows and on the cable pulls (new handle, ripped hands apart). Pretty good workout as my lifts are going up and I’m seeing an increase in size albeit small. Nothing noticeable to anyone else really though, but hey, its only been a week and a half so I’m not too worried haha.

Off day tomorrow and you know what that means: going to get trashed!..Yeah not really.

I felt like absolute shit after the front squat superset. I guess it wasn’t the food that made me sick last time, but the lack of conditioning in my legs.

I couldn’t add weight to the extension because it felt really awkward on my joints so I am just going to try and focus on moving up in weight on the leg curl. Today I was dry heaving over a trash can and felt terrible so the leg curl could have definitely be higher.

I’m up to 183.5lbs now. My partner mentioned that he thought I was leaning out and I’m GAINING weight! That’s exciting.

On a positive note, +20lbs on the front squats and sumos! I feel like total crap = great workout.

Moved back to my old gym so weights were a little different. Meant to go up to 60lbs on the preacher curls but misread the sign saying how much the bars weighed (thought it was 20, was actually 15).

Some of the supersetted lifts didn’t go up but I don’t really care as long as the main lifts go up, and they all did.

Scale read 187 this morning, 6lbs heavier than when I started. I’m thinking that’s a decent number, maybe a little on the high side but I’m definitely not complaining. Hell, my skull crushers have increased 20lbs in two weeks!

Tried to post the pic but its not working. I mentioned before that I looked nearly identical to what I do now but I think that is not true now that I have my desktop. I was slightly more lean and had just a small amount more muscle. This came after my gain of 50lbs then I cut about 10 off.

Pretty shitty day for chest even though its ridiculously sore today. Lat pulldown is still jumping up which is good. No straps so my grip was shot by the time I got to bent over rows again so I kept the weight low and used better form.

I physically could not pick up the bar after the last set of deadlifts. My lower back was toast for some reason. I couldn’t even bend my back for a few minutes because it was spazzing out so bad. Good workout.